As the acclaimed fantasy drama Game of Thrones returns for a second series, Ed
Cumming examines its appeal.

On the surface it’s difficult to imagine two television series less alike than Downton Abbeyand Game of Thrones. One is a near-pastiche of the British period drama, with haughty aristocrats and furtive late-night fumblings below stairs. The other is an epic fantasy, based on George RR Martin’s series of novels, with dragons, magic and wild creatures in the woods. The Earl of Grantham would surely arch an eyebrow to be compared with Eddard Stark, the King’s Hand and Lord of Winterfell.

Yet in a strange way, when Game of Thrones begins its second season tonight on Sky Atlantic, it does so with Downton as the obvious comparison. Both are hit series inspired by a vague, misty-eyed vision of Britain’s past. Both depict personal crises unravelling against a treacherous political landscape. Both have won millions of viewers, critical acclaim and top awards. And both have been showcases for some of Britain’s best character actors.

As if to prove the point, Iain Glen plays a knight in both series. They could hardly be more different. In Downton he was Sir Richard Carlisle, an unscrupulous newspaperman. In Game of Thrones he plays Ser Jorah Mormont, a one-time slave trader turned mercenary knight. As the curtain lifts on series two, Mormont is accompanying Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke, whom the programme has made into a star), with an army of desert warriors, the Dothraki, and three baby dragons. Glen appreciates the contrast.

“It’s been a treat,” says Glen. “You so often don’t get quite the audience you hoped for, so when these successes come along you have to relish them. Downton was different in that I was stepping into a popular series (Glen only joined for the second run), whereas with Game of Thrones I was there at the beginning, and you didn’t know how it was going to turn out. One of the delights has been attracting people who didn’t think fantasy was for them.”

It turned out better than anyone expected. In Britain nearly a million people watched the first episode, a record for Sky Atlantic. By contrast just 98,000 watched the opener to the fifth season of Mad Men last week. Game of Thrones was nominated for 13 Emmys, winning two. It has drawn fans from around the world; in unlikely places, too – notably Brazil and China – where the subtleties of Downton might be lost. “Downton is about understatement,” Glen explains. “Game of Thrones is exotic and colourful; it’s incredibly visceral.”

The first season introduced viewers to Westeros, a South America-shaped continent in which rival families vie to rule from the capital, King’s Landing. There were no obvious heroes; each character is by turns sympathetic and loathsome. Unusually for fantasy, most of the plot is political, more Washington than Mordor, and the magic is mainly on the fringes. Another unusual aspect is Martin’s tendency to bump off his lead characters without pause or ceremony. Stark, played by Sean Bean, was the poster boy for the first series, but this didn’t stop him being gruesomely beheaded in one of its later episodes.

In the second series the fight for control of Westeros promises to be even more heated. The mixture of skulduggery and intrigue sprinkled liberally with sex and violence is unchanged. New characters come in, others fade, and some die. The Britishness of the line-up is intact. Alongside Glen and Clarke are Charles Dance, Alfie Allen, Richard Madden and Kit Harington; names you might expect to see performing Shakespeare rather than locked in battle with direwolves.

This depth of character is a big part of the Game of Thrones phenomenon, explains DB Weiss. Along with co-producer David Benioff, he has been responsible for moulding Martin’s sprawling books into one-hour episodes. “Characters in Game of Thrones aren’t worrying about rescuing the magic sword and throwing it into the flames of death,” he says. “Their concerns are the same as those of the people you meet in real life. They’re very relatable.”

Glen puts it even more simply. “The world is very plausible. Everything’s been invented, but bizarrely, for fantasy, everything feels like it’s true.”